Boehringer partners with Harvard to discover drugs for conditions lacking treatments

Boehringer Ingelheim has formed a partnership with Harvard University in Massachusetts, US, to research treatments in area of “unmet medical need”.

This includes conditions in oncology, cardiometabolic, fibrotic and infectious diseases, with the two partners aiming to identify and investigate signalling pathways in the body that have yet to be investigated for a medical use.

The collaboration will see Germany-based pharma company Boehringer support research projects from proposals selected by a joint research committee, comprised of representatives from the Harvard Medical School ICCB-Longwood Screening Facility, various institutions affiliated with Harvard and Boehringer itself.

Eight projects have already been selected for support, with research covering stem cell survival in cancer and the replication of viruses.

Each is using specifically tailored screening systems to carry out RNAi screening projects.

"We are very pleased to sponsor the joint research programs by the distinguished scientists at Harvard in these important fields of medical need,” said Dr Adrian Carter, corporate VP of global research networking at Boehringer.

"We believe that this research collaboration with Harvard will help us create new medicines for a variety of important diseases that afflict our society today".

This collaboration is only the latest in a series of partnerships Harvard has formed with pharma, with existing agreements already in place with UCB for conditions related to the central nervous system and immunology and Sanofi for conditions including cancer and diabetes.

The university is also working with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to utilise stem cell research in the discovery of new medicines.